More by
Parade

In this Sunday’s PARADE, actress and mom Jodie Foster opens up about her childhood influences, how she almost quit acting and what she wants most for her children. Below, the actress talks more about her early acting career and raising her two children.

To read more about Jodie Foster, check out the March 16 issue of PARADE.On Her Early Sense of Responsibility

“I ask myself, ‘What did I miss?'” I had my little rebellions, but they were minimal. So I ask, ‘Why didn’t I rebel more?’ Then I remember — because I was responsible for someone else. That’s why I couldn’t rebel. That’s why I couldn’t get lost for days on end. I always had to work.”

“Before that, somebody would say, ‘OK, here are your lines. You go here and do this and that. Just try to make it as natural as possible. With Taxi Driver, I had this eureka moment. I realized that acting could be much more than what I had been doing. I had to build a character that wasn’t me.”

On Her Childhood Attitude Toward Acting

“To me, acting didn’t seem like much of a profession. My mom always said, ‘By the time you’re 16, your career will be over. So what do you want to do then?’ She was correct. Most child actors’ careers end early. They’re lost.”

On Life After College

“I saw leaving college as an opportunity to do something different with my life. I always thought that becoming an academic was going to be my path. I could’ve gone to New York, but I went back to Los Angeles because it was where I was from.” On What She Looks for in a Movie

“I make dark dramas, movies about people living in desperate fear who then overcome that fear and find a heroic side to themselves.”

One Raising Her Children

“Boys are easy. I mean, there are just a lot of bruises when they’re young. With boys, you get a lot of accidental jabs in the eye and stepping on your feet, and those tantrums they cause when they don’t want to leave the toy store.”

“But my boys are getting older now. They go to school all day, and then one wants to do T-ball and the other wants to do karate, so they’re actually gone until four-thirty. I want them to have curiosity about things they don’t know, and a desire to see places bigger than where they grew up.”

Read more about Jodie Foster in the March 16 issue of PARADE.In this Sunday’s PARADE, actress and mom Jodie Foster opens up about her childhood influences, how she almost quit acting and what she wants most for her children. Below, the actress talks more about her early acting career and raising her two children.

To read more about Jodie Foster, check out the March 16 issue of PARADE.On Her Early Sense of Responsibility

“I ask myself, ‘What did I miss?'” I had my little rebellions, but they were minimal. So I ask, ‘Why didn’t I rebel more?’ Then I remember — because I was responsible for someone else. That’s why I couldn’t rebel. That’s why I couldn’t get lost for days on end. I always had to work.”

“Before that, somebody would say, ‘OK, here are your lines. You go here and do this and that. Just try to make it as natural as possible. With Taxi Driver, I had this eureka moment. I realized that acting could be much more than what I had been doing. I had to build a character that wasn’t me.”

On Her Childhood Attitude Toward Acting

“To me, acting didn’t seem like much of a profession. My mom always said, ‘By the time you’re 16, your career will be over. So what do you want to do then?’ She was correct. Most child actors’ careers end early. They’re lost.”

On Life After College

“I saw leaving college as an opportunity to do something different with my life. I always thought that becoming an academic was going to be my path. I could’ve gone to New York, but I went back to Los Angeles because it was where I was from.” On What She Looks for in a Movie

“I make dark dramas, movies about people living in desperate fear who then overcome that fear and find a heroic side to themselves.”

One Raising Her Children

“Boys are easy. I mean, there are just a lot of bruises when they’re young. With boys, you get a lot of accidental jabs in the eye and stepping on your feet, and those tantrums they cause when they don’t want to leave the toy store.”

“But my boys are getting older now. They go to school all day, and then one wants to do T-ball and the other wants to do karate, so they’re actually gone until four-thirty. I want them to have curiosity about things they don’t know, and a desire to see places bigger than where they grew up.”